Google Street View Leads Cops to Abducted Girl

Google Street View has been on the radar of privacy advocates and has had its fair share of legal run-ins with them. But many of them might just undergo a change of heart after being told that cops in Massachussetes solved a kidnapping case using Google Street View. Although it is too early to say whether it will remain an isolated incident or become a precedent, the story is truly amazing.

When cops were trying to find the whereabouts of a 9-year old girl, who had been abducted by her granny, they were able to trace the coordinates of her phone to a location in Virginia. They then came up with an ingenious plan of identifying possible hideouts in that area using Google Street View.

Local cops were soon dispatched to a suspected hideout, where they found that technology had not disappointed them.

Comments

Obviously the 2 posters at the bottom have not been informed as to how google street view actually works. There are not "cameras every where" it isn't "live surveillance" it is a car with a camera mounted at head level that someone drives down the street recording still images. In any given neighborhod this MAY happen a handful of times a year.

What the cops did was utilize the cell phone location information to reduce a search area down to just a couple blocks. Then they started punching in address into googlemaps, to see what was there and eliminate places that were obviously not conducive to hiding a kidnapped little girl.

3345 elm? lets see whats there... loads up street view for that address, looks like a 7/11, that goes to the bottom of the list to search. 4100 Elm... an abandoned warehouse? Lets get a squad car over there to keep an eye on the place. Mind you these pictures could be anywhere from a day to several months old. It isn't "big brother" watching your every move.

I don't see what all the hubbub is about with privacy...it blurs out plates on cars and faces on people. It doesn't go into apartment complexes either. All in all, this kind of info is no more invading privacy then it is for me to look out of my window and see the outside. The distance of which I can see is only greater.

Now if this allowed you to see inside the walls of residenses or the trunk of your car...then we have a problem, but seeing as how the imagery isn't all clear, and thus even an open window is no less revealing than a shuttered one. I don't think there is much to worry about.

The iphone is more revealing of your whereabouts than street view is. And I can't tell you how awesome it is to see an apartment's exterior before you drive over there...if you don't like how the entry gate is all banged up, and mangled...you just saved yourself some gas by not going out on a needless trip.